sauce
Americannoun
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sauces
plural
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any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.
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stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.
cranberry sauce.
-
something that adds piquance or zest.
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Informal. sauciness; impertinence; impudence.
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Slang. Usually the sauce hard liquor.
He's on the sauce again.
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Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.
verb (used with object)
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sauces,
present (3rd person singular)
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sauced,
past participle, past
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saucing
present participle
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to dress or prepare with sauce; season.
meat well sauced.
-
to make a sauce of.
Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.
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to give piquance or zest to.
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to make agreeable or less harsh.
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Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.
noun
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any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour
-
anything that adds piquancy
-
stewed fruit
-
dialect vegetables eaten with meat
-
informal impudent language or behaviour
verb
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to prepare (food) with sauce
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to add zest to
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to make agreeable or less severe
-
informal to be saucy to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
saucesimple
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saucessimple
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have saucedperfect
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has saucedperfect
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am saucingprogressive
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are saucingprogressive
-
is saucingprogressive
-
have been saucingperfect progressive
-
has been saucingperfect progressive
Past
-
saucedsimple
-
had saucedperfect
-
was saucingprogressive
-
were saucingprogressive
-
had been saucingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sauce
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus “salted,” past participle of sallere “to salt,” derivative of sāl “salt”; see also salt 1
Explanation
A sauce is a nearly-liquid or soft topping or condiment for food. You might prefer your spaghetti with tomato sauce and your broccoli with cheese sauce. The cuisine of every country and region has its own sauces, from chutney served with Indian dosas to Hollandaise sauce on eggs Benedict and caramel sauce dolloped on sticky toffee pudding. You can even use sauce as a fancy verb: "Shall I sauce the beef?" Figuratively, to sauce someone is to speak in an impudent or cheeky way.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Social media giants usually keep the coding behind these algorithms -- the so-called "secret sauce" that drives traffic to their platforms -- closely guarded.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
“That remains the secret sauce — the magic — when it comes to making our communities more safe. Working together, collaborating, sharing intel and resources and teaming up,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
"Think of it as a shower head that blasts the sauce in 1.5 seconds," says Sharma.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Both Sakai and Tsugawa highlight the punch of wasabi and the salty complexity of soy sauce as complements to Wagyu.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Boo has tomato sauce on her cheeks and she’s waving her fork around.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
The company is using influencers and others to suggest ways to zhuzh up home-cooked meals, for instance by topping protein with its lineup of dipping sauces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Nobody wants to order mozzarella sticks anymore, they want the adventure of finding the best secret combo of mozzarella sticks dipped into various sauces in the cornucopia of a Chili’s Triple Dipper.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
I am an avowed condiment hound, especially when two sauces are doing different jobs.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
During a Thursday appearance on the popular talk show — where guests answer questions while eating chicken wings with increasingly spicy sauces — the actor struggled to keep his composure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
She demanded other dishes, special preparations, sauces g/acees, a blanquette of veal seasoned with oysters, chapon Flandrois in white wine, pluck and numbles rubbed with Ceylon herbs.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
Ferrell said later that he was glad to be in the back row because it meant nobody behind him got sauced.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
The omakase tower offers a selection of sushi, tuna tartare, spicy tuna crispy rice, sashimi, and rolls — perfect for those who enjoy heavily sauced sushi.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2025
Cook, stirring often, until the shrimp are lightly sauced and opaque throughout.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
Riding the wave of an obsessive interest in all forms of fried chicken, crispy chicken skins are the base for nachos at pop-ups, and sauced and spiced as appetizers in restaurants.
From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2022
"That was good, but now I'd like a leg of Iamb. A whole leg, Just for me, sauced with mint and honey and cloves. Did you see any lambs?"
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Of this generous, very pretty platter, my only sorrow was an uneven saucing, leaving one side somewhat bereft of the overall excellence.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
Little did she know that I did, and obviously still do, find a deep, personal satisfaction with all things chopping, sauteing, saucing, cooking and roasting.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2023
But like self-absorbed restaurant owners everywhere, I push for more, hungry for feedback about the roll I selected for the brisket sandwich or the artful saucing of the pasta in her Thermos.
From New York Times ● Sep. 20, 2019
But for the last couple of weeks, two guys known for making pizzas in Altadena have been frying and saucing excellent chicken wings out of a corner of the store.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2016
They talked back to subscribers, saucing off, uttering facetious remarks, and generally giving lip.
From The Hacker Crackdown, law and disorder on the electronic frontier by Bruce Sterling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
